A Supervisory System in Machining Process Leading to Electric Power Saving

<jats:p>We propose a supervisory technique to monitor the material removal state and tool wear condition as well as the estimation method for overall power consumed in the machining from the effective spindle power change. The effective power (VAcosφ) was the optimal motor related parameter to represent the motor load. The cutting condition can be related with the effective power change by using the averaged effective power for 0.2 seconds. The mean effective power is in proportion to the material removal rate. In addition, the averaged effective power can monitor continuously the tool wear condition and tool breakage. There was a series of cutting conditions where the specific effective power becomes minimum in the grooving operation. Under the cutting conditions with the minimum specific effective power, the cutting would have been conducting at the least cutting resistance and less overall power consumed. These facts indicates that we can determine the cutting conditions, where the cutting resistance and overall power consumed are getting minimum at the same time, by measuring the effective spindle power change during the operation.</jats:p>